Hi all!
My fiancee just got NOA1 in the post
Checking the processing time it is apparently bang-on 5 months... however these include RFE's I guess (?) and so 'smooth sailers' go quicker (? again)...
Obviously we are keen for it all to fly through! But being realistic, which sadly we have to be, anyone care to share their durations & experiences so we can get a better idea of well prepped submission packs?

Hello again :-)
yeah, that's what I'm reading... the average that I can work out based on what I have found so far is 14 weeks, so yep not even half-way yet!!
...back to pacing up and down... ;-)

Patience is a virtue in this process. The one thing I learned (the hard way) when we were waiting on petition approval was that comparing our timeline to others was the WORST thing I could have done. Not only is it truly futile, but it stresses you out worse than it would if you just went with a ballpark idea and were content to let it come when it came.

Patience is a virtue in this process. The one thing I learned (the hard way) when we were waiting on petition approval was that comparing our timeline to others was the WORST thing I could have done. Not only is it truly futile, but it stresses you out worse than it would if you just went with a ballpark idea and were content to let it come when it came.

We called the USCIS to find out why it was taking so long, we expected a couple of months tops. Seems like they are pretty busy with the problems in Haiti. They told us that they were still within the 5 months process time, and if it wasn't processed within that time scale, it would automatically go through. (but they did also say that ours was a clear cut case!)

It is worth a quick (30 minutes on hold) call to the USCIS after a couple of months, just to see if there is anything that you should be doing.

Just sit and wait, and make the most of where both of you are right now.

We called the USCIS to find out why it was taking so long, we expected a couple of months tops. Seems like they are pretty busy with the problems in Haiti. They told us that they were still within the 5 months process time, and if it wasn't processed within that time scale, it would automatically go through. (but they did also say that ours was a clear cut case!)

It is worth a quick (30 minutes on hold) call to the USCIS after a couple of months, just to see if there is anything that you should be doing.

Just sit and wait, and make the most of where both of you are right now.

Hope this helps.

I'm curious - what does the USCIS have to do with the situation in Haiti?

I'm curious - what does the USCIS have to do with the situation in Haiti?

I am not 100% sure, but they mentioned it when we called.

It seemed that they were processing Haitian documents with urgency, and the rest of us had been put to the bottom of the pile, probably to do with the fact that there are now so many homeless people there.

Don't quote me on that, they didn't really expand, and I didn't feel it necessary to ask.

It seemed that they were processing Haitian documents with urgency, and the rest of us had been put to the bottom of the pile, probably to do with the fact that there are now so many homeless people there.

Don't quote me on that, they didn't really expand, and I didn't feel it necessary to ask.

Ah ok. Actually that does make sense once you mentioned it (can I claim pregnancy brain?